


Remember That Time Under the Table?

by giselleslash



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-24
Updated: 2011-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-18 15:28:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/190324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giselleslash/pseuds/giselleslash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bradley and Colin hide out underneath a table during a party and things kind of happen. Bradley would like to blame the pudding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember That Time Under the Table?

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [Bradley/Colin Prompt Fest](http://moonilicious.livejournal.com/1152249.html) for this [prompt](http://moonilicious.livejournal.com/1152249.html?thread=9028601#t9028601). I was planning on writing a little something but then it morphed into something else and I was all, eh, IT'S FLUFF AND THAT IS GOOD, and continued on my merry little way.

"Do you think they'll find us under here?" Colin asks as he leans forward and picks up the edge of the tablecloth.

Bradley slaps his hand. "Don't lift it up. First rule of Table Hiding Club is do not lift up the tablecloth."

"I thought it was do not talk about Table Hiding Club."

"Whatever," Bradley shrugs and shovels pudding into his mouth. "Just don't lift the fucking tablecloth, a'right?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

Bradley doesn't respond, just leans toward Colin and opens up his mouth really wide before shoveling in more pudding.

"Hold out your arm," Colin orders.

"No. Can't hold my bowl and eat at the same time."

"Set your bowl on the floor."

"Highly unsanitary, Colin."

"Just yesterday you ate a crisp off the ground. You can't claim unsanitary."

"Five second rule."

"It fell in the _dirt_ , Bradley."

"The five second rule is hard and fast. Dirt or no dirt."

"Whatever. Give me your arm," Colin says. "You're very rule oriented tonight."

"It's the pudding. It makes me think things, reevaluate the world."

"Must be good pudding."

"Want some?"

Colin wrinkles his nose, shakes his head.

"Oh fuck me, Morgan, do _not_ tell me you have a pudding allergy. Or you don't like it. It's _pudding_ for fucksake. Babies and the elderly eat it, surely you can too."

"It's vanilla. I like chocolate. And pistachio."

"Mixed together?" Bradley asks.

"What? Fuck no."

Bradley shrugs. "Sounds good to me."

"Arm," Colin insists for the third time. He holds out his hand, wiggles his fingers.

"Fine," Bradley sighs and sets his bowl of pudding on the floor and shoves his arm out to Colin.

Colin wraps his fingers around Bradley's wrist and pulls it over his lap so Bradley's arm rests on his knees. Bradley leans a bit closer to Colin and is busy watching his face as he uncaps the biro he had in his pocket. He's already started writing on the inside of Bradley's arm before it even registers.

"Don't write on my arm," Bradley says, but he doesn't move his arm away and Colin keeps writing. Bradley keeps watching Colin's face because he's biting his lower lip and his forehead's all furrowed in concentration and Bradley finds it all ridiculously lovely. Colin's lips, his stupid concentration. Bradley's eyes slip to Colin's ear and the long bit of neck that sweeps away from it, at the messed up hair that's curling around it (Colin had scratched just behind his ear earlier in the night, Bradley remembers because it made his hair stick up in one spot like he had a horn growing out of the side of his head. Bradley thought it was awesome.) He kind of wants to bite Colin's hair, tug at it a little bit with his teeth. He thinks he might be drunk. Drunk on pudding. Pudding drunk.

"There's no such thing as pudding drunk," Colin says, but his voice is quiet and he doesn't look at Bradley at all when he says it because he's still hunched over Bradley's arm doodling away with his stupid fucking biro and Bradley wants to know why someone would walk around with a biro in their pocket? "So I can write on your arm," Colin answers. "Obviously."

Bradley frowns. "Am I talking out loud? I thought I was only talking in my head."

"Bits and pieces were out loud. Like always," Colin says, then, "There. Finished."

Bradley looks down at his arm. It says, _MMM. PUDDING._ and there are two bowls of pudding underneath it. The bowls have smiley faces and arms that are waving. One bowl of pudding is saying, _EAT ME._ and the other, _HELP US FULFILL OUR LIFE'S PURPOSE_.

Bradley laughs and Colin smiles. He looks proud of himself and Bradley thinks it's sweet.

"I'd eat the hell out of that pudding," Bradley says.

"You've just made two bowls of pudding very very happy."

"I hope they're both vanilla."

"Nope. Chocolate and pistachio."

"I'm going to mix them together so you won't eat any."

"You're a bit of a pudding asshole, aren't you?" Colin asks, then snorts when Bradley laughs at the 'pudding asshole' bit just like he knew he would. He still has Bradley's arm draped across his lap. His fingers are lightly scratching it, back and forth, slowly. Bradley slumps against him and Colin's fingers stay on his arm.

"Do you know what would be awesome?" Bradley asks.

"Any number of things, I'd imagine."

"Pfft." Bradley makes a noise. "Stop being dumb. You're supposed to answer, 'what?' not say stupid things."

"Fine. What?" Colin's fingers are still on Bradley's arm. The skin on the inside of it is soft and Colin can't stop touching it. It seems vulnerable, a little bit delicate, and it makes Bradley softer too. Like he is when he's not loud and laughing and pulling on Colin's sleeve to get him to go places. Bradley can never just say, 'let's go,' and trust Colin to follow. He has to wrench his fingers up in Colin's sleeve, has to touch him and pull him along. Colin always follows without complaint. Where else would he go?

"If Katie sat down. Right here. In this chair." Bradley taps the leg of the chair in front of them with his toe. "She's wearing that short skirt. We could see if she's wearing knickers or not."

"That's fucking perverted. I'd look away," Colin says, although he's not sure he would because it's Katie after all and he kind of wants to know. And see. Only he's not going to admit that bit to Bradley.

"That's cos you're a gentleman. And a smug, self-righteous twat."

Colin laughs. "I love how you see the world."

"Everything's covered in rainbows."

"I'm sure."

"I'd get a good look in, let me tell you." Bradley says. Colin wants to tell him that, no, he wouldn't. For all of Bradley's bragging and tendency towards filth he'd never ever do such a thing to Katie. Colin knows if the situation presented itself Bradley would blush, turn away, and make Colin do the same. Under all of his Bradley-ness he's painfully sweet. Sincere and gentle. Colin imagines him as a little boy in those moments when his bragging makes him blush and he stops suddenly when he realizes what he's said. Colin suspects Bradley's mum got innumerable bouquets of dandelions gone limp from being clasped in sweaty little boy hands and more hugs and kisses than the average mum. Colin imagines Bradley stopping in the middle of his playing to call out to his mum and when she'd answer shout out, 'I love you' just so she'd know. Like kids sometimes do; prompted by nothing at all and achingly innocent and dear.

Colin's not sure if it's the drink that makes him think all those things or not as they sit underneath a table at Angel's birthday party. He suspects, no, he knows it's not the drink because he thinks those things all the time and drinking is hardly ever involved.

Bradley's arm has turned and his hand is covering Colin's knee. It's warm and the touch burns both on his knee and in his chest.

"No, you wouldn't," he tells Bradley.

Bradley turns, looks him in the eyes and doesn't say anything for a long time. "No, you're right. I wouldn't. That'd be awful. And Katie's lovely, isn't she?" he asks.

Colin nods.

"She's lovely like you," Bradley adds.

Colin swallows. He should probably say, 'you too' but his tongue's a bit stuck.

"Always laughing and saying nice things. Being funny," Bradley's voice kind of trails off and fades away at the end. He's looking at Colin's mouth like he's waiting for it to do all those things; laugh, say nice things, or funny things, or maybe something altogether different.

Colin hopes.

And he thinks, 'oh, god,' and 'kiss me,' and 'I might have been waiting for this all along.'

Bradley's eyes seem stuck on Colin's mouth and he thinks he should maybe be the one to kiss Bradley instead. If it all goes wrong he can blame it on, well, he'll think of something, and then everything will be alright again but just this once. Just this once.

So while Bradley's eyes are half-closed and his cheeks slightly flushed Colin kisses him, because he can and Bradley's so close. The kiss is quick, although it doesn't end because their lips never part and Bradley's gone on to the next, to kiss _him_ , and it's long and soft and a little bit dizzying. Colin knows he's holding onto Bradley's arm too tightly but their shoulders are pressed together and Bradley tastes like vanilla pudding and Colin has to rethink his opinions because it might just be his favorite.

Bradley's other hand reaches up, touches Colin's cheek, and Colin makes sure the kiss doesn't end so it'll stay just where it is and his lips will keep tingling like he's been humming too long.

The kisses start out sweet enough, rather innocent even, but Bradley gasps and draws in a breath of air and Colin takes advantage. He wants more; desperate, open-mouthed kisses because he _is_ desperate but he also just kind of wants to joke with Bradley and tell him he wants to eat his face. It's sort of a joke but kind of true too because Colin kind of _does_ want to eat Bradley's face and he'd laugh about that, so Bradley would too, but the kisses, see. The kisses.

The kisses.

Colin turns himself into Bradley's body and the hand without the death grip on Bradley's arm finds its way into the soft hair at the nape of his neck. He thinks he might have pulled on it a bit too hard because Bradley grunts but it seems to do the job because suddenly Bradley's leaning over him, pushing into him and Colin is on his back. He wonders if he should be embarrassed that he's on the floor underneath a table and trying very very hard to rut against Bradley's thigh like he's fifteen again and desperate to get off right the fuck now. He won't be though, he won't be embarrassed. He won't let himself because Bradley's pressing down on him and Colin can feel he's just as hard as he is and he's reassured. All his embarrassment and fear and wariness disappears because there's only this need. An unbearable want that trumps everything else.

"Colin," Bradley breathes and his hand is holding fast to Colin's thigh.

"I just. Can I?" Colin asks and he's already pulling at Bradley's zipper, their foreheads bumping together as they both look down at Colin's hands. If he can just touch him, just this once. "Let me. Please." Bradley's nodding his head, kissing Colin's neck and then the corner of his mouth and Colin takes that as a 'yes' and a 'pleasepleaseplease.' Colin's trying so hard to get at Bradley but his hands don't seem to work and a puff of laughter leaves his mouth when he hears Bradley swear under his breath and feels Bradley's hands fighting to get at him too. This stupid, stupid tangle of hands and Colin is breathless with it. He's rubbing himself against Bradley's thigh and he thinks he's probably only making it more difficult for Bradley but he can't stop himself and Bradley doesn't seem to want him to either. He's pushing his thigh against Colin like he doesn't want him to stop at the same time he's trying to get his hand shoved down the front of Colin's trousers and he'd laugh if he didn't feel like he was dying just a little bit from how good it felt.

Colin's scrambling, reaching fingers finally get Bradley's zip down and they're on the warm skin of his stomach, then they slip inside his boxers. Bradley gasps and hunches forward, curls around Colin and breathes out 'fuck' and 'Colin' and 'oh god, me too.' All Colin can think is 'yesyesyes' and he maybe says some of that too loudly when Bradley actually gets his hand shoved down Colin's boxers and his fingers wrap about his cock because Bradley slams his mouth against Colin's. Shushes him and kisses him at the same time, a weird sort of shush-kiss that Colin's sort of in love with.

Colin pushes against Bradley's hand and fuck. Fuck. His hand. Fucking perfect and wrapped around his cock. For a while it's just wet, breathless kisses and stroking hands but then it tips toward desperate and all they do is push against one another. Their legs all tangled up and Bradley's foot pushes out, hooks the leg of a chair and makes it scuttle a bit along the floor. Colin's arm is wrapped around Bradley's neck anchoring him, his hand clenched up into a fist, and Bradley's is wrapped around Colin's waist. Their breaths are hot in each others ears, short and jagged because they're gasping for breath. And it's all heat and movement and white noise around them because all they hear is their breathing echoing strangely in their ears and everything else is very far away until there's nothing at all.

Bradley seems shocked by the feel of Colin's come all over his hand because he jerks it away from him suddenly and he's looking down at Colin like he doesn't know what he should do. His cheeks are flushed and his mouth. Fuck, his mouth, it's red and Colin wants to kiss him again. He looks up at Bradley and wills him to feel the same. He's not sure what to do either, in that moment, but he thinks that maybe if they just press their lips together again it'll be alright. Colin feels like it should be, if they just do that.

But Bradley is backing off of him, his hands struggling to tuck himself back into his trousers. "Um. Fuck. I should. I'll go," Bradley says. "I mean first. I'll go first. It'll look weird if we leave together." He laughs and it's odd and choked off. "The two of us crawling out from underneath a table. How fucking weird is that?" Colin wants to say, 'not weird at all, it's us, people kind of expect that sort of shit from us' but he doesn't. He only nods and lets Bradley scramble away awkwardly as he stays under the table; cock hanging out of his zip and what he's sure is a stunned, rather panicked look on his face.

Not the most fortunate look.

Colin rights himself and tries to look as unfucked as possible even though he knows he's fooling no one. Especially himself.

The night goes down hill from there. Bradley is nowhere to be seen and because of his absence Colin feels like it's his duty to stay until the bitter end. He doesn't know why and he's sure Bradley wouldn't give a fuck either way whether or not he stayed, but he just feels like he should. Maybe he wants to be able to rub it in Bradley's face later. Ha. I stayed and you didn't and that makes me win somehow. Only it's not really a game because neither one of them know the rules. Colin just knows he sits at a table, drinks, smiles and then it's the end of the night and he can finally go and hide in his room. Face down in bed and hoping like fuck he can face Bradley the next day.

 

~~**~~

 

Bradley knows he was a bit of a bastard the night before. And by bit he means a full on, kicks puppies kind of bastard. But see the thing was he panicked. He panicked when what he should have done was just bloody well kiss Colin again. Kiss him until his lips fell off. Bradley thinks that's a rather sound plan.

Of course it would've been a right better deal to have thought of this spectacular plan last night. Bradley blames his sex-addled mind. His fucking Colin-addled mind. And he stumbles a little then because he's just put the words 'fuck' and 'Colin' right next to each other and the thought of that particular word combination makes his feet stop working. Brain too. But definitely not his cock. That's all sorted out then.

He doesn't know what to say to Colin when he sees him first thing. Are they going to acknowledge it or ignore it or maybe blame it on the pudding? Bradley thinks he'd like to blame it on the pudding. Especially if Colin isn't as keen on this whole thing. Whatever it is. Or was. Bradley hopes it _is_ something and not was something because that would just be really, really fucking disappointing. Because Bradley thinks, has always thought actually, that the two of them could be kind of great. Like pudding. He and Colin could fucking be pudding and spend the rest of their life sharing a bowl and being happy because what's fucking unhappy about being pudding?

Bradley scratches his nose and starts composing a great, giant speech in his head that he's going to spew all over Colin once he sees them. He's going to tell him his pudding theory and how they should probably be together. It's going to involve flow charts and illustrations if that's what it takes to get Colin to see the wisdom of Bradley's thinking. He should probably add some examples as well. Like how he's come to realize that Colin is the person he wants to tell everything to because Colin needs to know if Bradley's favorite pair of socks has got a hole in them or when his curry is too spicy. Colin needs to know that. And he needs to know that Bradley thinks he smells good and would spend an abnormally large part of his day sniffing him if it weren't incredibly weird, and that he spends really long stretches of time thinking about touching Colin's head; his hair, his ears, his fucking eyelashes and his mouth.

And somewhere in the middle of this rather epic speech Bradley suspects he should probably just say, 'I love you.' and 'I just want to be. With you. For a really really long time.' because that's the most important bit of it all anyway. The stuff Colin should actually know.

And possibly something about Bradley wanting to get Colin's name tattooed on his ass with the words 'Property of:' preceding it. But that's a bridge to cross at a later date, after they've gotten all the major bits taken care of.

So Bradley has a lot of feelings and a lot of words planned out but then Colin sneaks up behind him and doesn't say a word. He's just there all of a sudden and Bradley can feel the weight of anticipation and words not said and apologies that are on tips of tongues settling between them and it's not right. But neither are words right now, he realizes, so he just reaches back for Colin's hand. And he finds he doesn't need to search for it because it slides right into his. He looks over his shoulder, back at Colin who's looking at him sort of defiantly like he dares Bradley not to hold on tightly and sort of hopeful too and it bursts apart Bradley's heart and that enormous weight of unsaid things just disappears. He sees the second Colin feels it too because his lips part a little and he takes a breath and his face goes soft. Bradley smiles at him, sort of demented and goofy but so so happy, and squeezes his hand.

Colin squeezes back. Smiles too and Bradley thinks his big epic speech can wait for some other time because he's sort of busy being in love at the moment.

 

~End


End file.
